I couldn't be more thrilled, delighted even by last night's unlikely comeback win that I didn't see. Sounds like a great game, and a moment we might look back on as a classic one if... well, I'm getting ahead of myself. It's June, I'm going to just relax.

But let me backtrack a day and talk a bit about Thursday's game.

I'm totally in love with Charlie Manuel right now for his bold move of benching Jimmy for lollygaggin' his way to first. I've often (too often for me to really comfortably admit) dreamt about being a manager and doing the same to my own lazy, dumb players. Now, Jimmy is neither lazy or dumb; he's a great player on a great team and until that moment hadn't been anything but great all season. (Well, he's in a slump, but slumps happen.) But I love how Charlie doesn't care: you don't run out a pop fly, you get benched. That's just sweet. (Myself, I would also do it when a guy swings at the first pitch right after the last guy walked on four pitches. God, I hate that. It drives me nuts. In recent weeks I've seen Coste and Feliz do it, and probably others. STOP!)

In addition to the usual goals of winning the division, the NL, and the World Series, and seeing the Red Sox get humiliated in some epic way, another thing I'd love to see this year is the Phils have a great season from start to finish. I'm still haunted by how they they got off to great starts in 1995 and 2001 and then had terrible second halves - and of course, we know what happened to the Mets last year. I don't want the Phils to be like 17 games over .500 with a 7 game lead at the all star break and then start sucking in August. That's why I love Charlie's move, because it (I hope) will keep the team focused. I love the idea of the Phils becoming a cold, efficient machine that just pounds other teams and never slacks - not when they're up by 10, not when they're down by 10, not when it's a BPS in June against the Reds. I want them to stay this good, preferably forever. (Of course, I like the idea of them having fun too, because they're a fun team.) It's staying focused that helped Bruntlett score last night on that fielding gaffe - if he'd been jogging complacently to home like a loser, he'd have been tagged out and they would have lost, and suddenly I'd be worried, because I worry about things.

It's way too early and I'm way too Philadelphian to hand the division to our guys just yet. That would be silly. On the other hand, our run differential right now is +69. This team is good, folks. REALLY good.